A Grand welcome

Rehab Development, owners of the New Brick Historic Lofts, hosted a ribbon cutting Thursday with tours afterwards of the 27 upscale apartment units nestled inside the refurbished old tobacco warehouse. Patrick Reilly, a principal of the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based firm, welcomed a sizeable crowd for the formal opening of the apartment lofts, developed in partnership with Destination Downtown and the Town of South Boston. “To have a successful public-private partnership, you need good teammates — and for this project, we had great teammates,” said South Boston Vice Mayor Coleman Speece in hailing the project. The $3 million redevelopment of the New Brick — the last standing tobacco warehouse in Halifax County — was accomplished with state and federal historic tax credits, grant funds from the state, a $185,000 no-interest loan by the town, and a minimum $2.5 million investment by Rehab Development. Top, company representatives, local officials and family members of T.P. Nelson, late operator of the New Brick Tobacco Warehouse, gather to cut the ribbon on the project. Inset: Reilly, Speece and Gene Haugh, board president of Destination Downtown. (Mary McLaughlin photo)